It is common that people, especially physically active and frail elderly people, experience a variety of lower leg, ankle and foot injuries. For example, sprains to the calcaneofibular and anterior tabofibular ligaments often afflict a number of professional and amateur athletes. Other injuries can include moderate to severe ankle sprains, stable foot and ankle fractures or other trauma, such as surgery.
To aid in the proper healing and treatment of these and other lower leg and foot injuries, or for post-operative and/or rehabilitation purposes, it is necessary that the affected areas, as well as the surrounding tissue, be stabilized and immobilized.
Physicians traditionally have treated, and still currently treat, injuries affecting lower leg extremities and the foot by fitting the injured patient with the well-known, molded plaster or resin cast, which is set around an inner cotton or gauze lining. The placement of this type of cast around the lower leg is time consuming, heavy, and costly. Further, this type of cast must not come into contact with water, which makes patient bathing difficult and time consuming. Additionally, if the cast needs to be removed for any reason, for example inspection or physical therapy, a whole new cast must be prepared and applied.
Alternatively, lower leg walkers provide stabilization and support of the lower leg, including the ankle and foot, such that at least partial mobility may be maintained while an injury to the lower leg, ankle, and/or foot is in the process of healing. Further, in contrast to the molded plaster or resin cast, a lower leg walker can be removed by the patient in order to bathe or for inspection of the injured limb by a physician or practitioner.
Existing wrap-around or circumferential walkers can be bulky and difficult and time consuming to don and doff. In particular, numerous straps must be properly threaded through retaining rings and each strap individually tightened in order to properly support and immobilize the limb.
Further, existing circumferential walkers do not provide a mechanism for accommodating different sized lower legs, ankles, and feet of different users. Thus, many different sized walkers are needed to accommodate different sized users.
Alternatively, existing walkers may be of the one size fits all type, such that the walkers are designed for an average sized lower leg, ankle, and foot, but do not provide a comfortable fit for users that have larger or smaller than average lower legs, ankles, and feet. Particularly, hard edges and surfaces of existing walkers can cause pressure points that can cause users pain and discomfort, and may also cause injury to a user.
Accordingly, exemplary embodiments of a circumferential lower leg walker that alleviate or eliminate the above mentioned drawbacks are described herein.